Barnstable Patriot Column # 53

Friday

Nov 28, 2008 at 2:00 AM

Last month I wrote about the upcoming economic summit that was being presented by the Cape Cod Chamber, Workforce Investment Board, the Cape Cod Young Professionals and Cape Cod Community College. The event was attended by some 350 people and covered a wide range of information.

Patriot Staff

Economic summit – regional picture

Last month I wrote about the upcoming economic summit that was being presented by the Cape Cod Chamber, Workforce Investment Board, the Cape Cod Young Professionals and Cape Cod Community College. The event was attended by some 350 people and covered a wide range of information. Today I want to discuss the labor market information that was presented by Dr. Neeta Fogg, an economist at the Center for Labor Market Studies (CLMS) at Northeastern University. First of all I want to point out that we are very fortunate to have a prestigious institution like the CLMS located in Massachusetts. The CLMS is nationally recognized as one of the premier data sources for labor market information, and they work very closely with the state and local WIBs to enhance our understanding of our economy. So, to the data, which is available on our Web site www.ciwib.org . First let’s look at the total number of jobs. Nationally, in the period from December 2007 to October 2008, employment has decreased by nearly 1 percent (.9 percent), with the national economy losing approximately 1.1 million jobs. In Massachusetts our total employment went up one-tenth of a percent (.1 percent), adding about 2,500 jobs. That figure is through September and has changed; in October we lost some 7,000 jobs in the state, though that’s still much better than the national economy. On the Cape from the first quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2008 our total employment dropped about seven tenths of a percentage point (.7 percent). For us that means the loss of 673 jobs. Employment in real estate sales dipped the most, 6.2 percent, a loss of 102 jobs. Our information/knowledge industry lost 78 jobs (3.5 percent). On the Cape we had gains in administrative positions and wholesale trade, each growing over 2 percent. So from a total jobs picture our economy has held its own when compared with the national figures, but we are not performing quite as well as the state. The positive trends are apparent when you couple this data with the most recent unemployment figures. The state’s unadjusted unemployment rate is 5 percent. Barnstable is also 5 percent, Nantucket is 2.5 percent and Martha’s Vineyard is 3.4 percent. All of these figures have increased from the same time last year. The state figure for last year was 3.9 percent, Barnstable was 3.6 percent, Nantucket was 1.6 percent and Martha’s Vineyard was 2.5 percent. Our rates are also significantly lower than the national rate of 6.5 percent. By the way, I used unadjusted unemployment rates above so I could have comparative numbers. Many of you saw that the current unemployment rate for the state is 5.5 percent. That is the adjusted rate. The adjusted rate is not yet available for the Cape and Islands. Fogg presented data that examined the educational attainment levels of our region, and how that matches up with the jobs that are available here. In many of our industries individuals with high school diplomas or some college make up the majority of employees. In construction, retail and service industries the majority of workers do not have college degrees. Fogg also noted that the number of Associate’s degrees increase 23 percent between 1996 and 2006. Nationally, Associate’s were up 26 percent. A large number of Cape and Islands students pursue degrees in health sciences (26 percent) and the arts and humanities (54 percent). These two areas are significant. I think that the majority of arts and humanities students are preparing to acquire four-year degrees. The health science grads match up very well with the jobs that are available here. When we look at the job vacancies in the region the highest number of vacancies occur in health services, 612 jobs available in the most recent survey (4th quarter 2007). That is over 4 percent of all of the job vacancies in the region. Even better, 289 of those jobs are in healthcare practitioner and technician occupations, some of the highest paying jobs in our region. In general I think it is fair to conclude that our employment picture is very good in terms of having a low unemployment rate that compares very well with the national and state rates. It is an indication of the changes in our economy that have taken place over the past several years where we have become much more of a year round economy. While our employment is still dominated by hospitality and retail jobs, which do not pay as well as some other industries, there are significant opportunities in health care, construction and management occupations that provide family sustaining wages in our region. I also need to point out that the employment captured in the data Fogg presented does not account for the large number of self employed who populate our creative economy. Nor does the data cover the many entrepreneurs who are starting businesses on their own. That information is a story for another day. Please visit our Web site ciwib.org to peruse the presentation and supporting data that Fogg used at the economic summit.